Cloth-folding machine



I (No Model.) v

J. .B. WINDLE. CLOTH FOLDING MACHINE.

Noi 523,499. PatentedJu'I'y 24,= 1894.

JOHN E. WINDLE, OF NORTH GRAFTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLOTH-FOLDING MACHIN E.

srncrmcn'rron forming part of Letters Patent No. 523,499, dated July 24, 1894.

Application filed August 4, 1892. Serial No. 442,118. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:-

Be it known that I, JOHN E. WINDLE, of

North Grafton, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Oloth-Folding Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

The machine, the subject of this invention, has for its object to fold cloth longitudinally, and by my improvements this.work may be performed quickly and with the minimum of personal attention.

In accordance with my invention I have arranged between the presser rolls and the friction roll, they occupying positions substantially at right angles each to the other, a truncatedformer,andsmoothingrods,theformer acting upon the distended material from its edges substantially to its longitudinal center, so that the material is gradually folded longitudinally, the material being delivered from the former between the smoothing rods occupying a position diagonal to the line of travel of the folded cloth, smoothing the presser rolls; 0 the cloth-receiving board heldbetween suitable centers connected with the shafts of the gears O, 0

D is a cloth-receiving table on which will be deposited in a pile the cloth to be folded longitudinally; D a bar over which the cloth in its full width is drawn, and D a friction roll under which the cloth in its unfolded condition is drawn, the roll D being substantially at right angles to the presser rolls.

The parts so far referred to are substantially as in cloth folding machines now made, and substantially as in United States Patent No. 349,7 74, and therefore need not be herein further described.

To the machine parts so far described I have added a rod a, which is supported rigidly in suitable bearings, not shown, Y extended from the frame A below the stand 0 this rod near itsopposite endshaving mounted upon it collars I) having suitable ears '6' for the reception of a Wire 0 bent or formed into A-shape and shown as attached at the small or pivoted end of the A to an inclined blade or bar a secured in suitable manner as by a screw 0 to a stand 0 or other proper support on the frame-work and in a plane at right angles to the axis ofthe friction roll.- The rod 0 constitutes a truncated former and it is braced in position tangential to the said roll by the bar 2'. Above the F former I have arranged the smoothing rods d, cl, they being extended diagonally across the folded cloth from itsvcentral fold to its edges, the lower ends of said rods being located at opposite sides of the upper extremity of the inclined bar, as shown, to receive the folded material between them, the former delivering the longitudinally folded material to the said rods, the'latter by their friction gradually smoothing the cloth from its central line of fold to its free edges.

I have shown the presser rolls B, and in practice they'will preferably be used, but my invention would'not be departed from if the said rolls B were omitted.

Itwillbe understood that the folded material will be drawn positively by suitable means from the friction roll and over the former and between the smoothing rods, the said means in this embodiment of this invention being the board 0, and the gears 0', C and their shafts, said gears in practice deriving their motion of rotation from pinions p on a suitable power shaft H parallel to the shaft or journal of the said gears.

Having described my invention, What I claim as-new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a cloth folding machine, the following instrumentalities, viz;--a friction roll, a truncated former to act on the unfolded material from its edges to its longitudinal center,-devices to draw the cloth from the friction roll over the former, and smoothing devices occupying an inclined position with relation to the line of travel of the cloth and receiving the folded cloth between them, substantially as described. 1

2. In a cloth folding machine the following instrumentalities, vima friction roll, a truncated former composed of an inclined bar ocper extremity of the inclined bar, to receive cupying a position in a plane at right angles the folded material between them and graduto the axis of said roll, and rods 0, substanally smooth it from its central line of fold to tially tangential tot the friction roll and conits free edges, substantially as described. 1 5 5 verging to the said bar, said former acting on In testimony whereof I have signed my the unfolded material from its edges to its name to this specification in the presence of longitudinal center, devices to draw the matwo subscribing witnesses.

terial from the friction roll over the said JOHN E. VVINDLE. former, and diagonally extended rods ex- Witnesses: IO tended above the former and having their GEO. W. GREGORY,

lower ends located at opposite sides of the up- M. J. SHERIDAN. 

